


Feel How The Winter Succumbs to The Spring

by RisingShadows



Series: So breathe deep [3]
Category: 1917 (Movie 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, It's only alluded to, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:33:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23370046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RisingShadows/pseuds/RisingShadows
Summary: Lieutenant Elis Leslie returns home from the war and doesn't care all that much about staying.(Companion piece to So Open Your Eyes You're Alive)
Relationships: Joseph Blake/Lieutenant Leslie
Series: So breathe deep [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1719796
Comments: 2
Kudos: 48





	Feel How The Winter Succumbs to The Spring

Elis Leslie goes home from the war with a few new medals to a cold house. His mother a fleeting presence and his father a nuisance far worse than anything he’d had to deal with in the war. He spends two weeks wishing he could leave and avoiding his father while his sister rattles on about how thankful the three of them are to have him home. 

He has no doubt that his father would much rather he hadn’t returned from the war he’d packed him away on. He’d seemed much happier to see him leave than to see him home after all. And Elis doesn’t mind his father’s dislike of him. He hadn’t cared about his father’s opinion of him since he was sixteen and his father had caught him with a boy from the next town. 

The only issue he had was the letters. Once a week like clockwork, and well he didn’t want them to stop. Joseph Blake was the only thing from the war he cared to bring home with him and Joseph Blake was the one thing he could never bring home with him. 

So he settled for a letter a week, his own letters sent out whenever he managed to slip from the house when his father wasn’t looking. The letters he received being carefully locked where his family wouldn’t find them as he continued to ignore the woman his sister invited over. Always quick to introduce him with a wide smile. 

He’d stopped bothering to be polite after the first two weeks. Opting to simply glare with a few sarcastic answers until the conversation turned and he could slip from the room while his sister apologized behind him. 

He was simply so  _ changed  _ from the war, she was sure they could all understand. Why, some of them had even lost family to it themselves. 

It left a bad taste in his mouth every time. He’d spent years trapped in the trenches. Now, home with the war over and no more risk of bleeding out in the mud every day and he felt more trapped than he ever had then. 

His mother was the easiest to deal with. She didn’t bother with any of his sister’s attempts to find him a “nice young lady,” instead she’d simply sit near him. Quiet as she always had been when he was a child. 

She’d never once argued with his father, but well. She’d always been the one to support what he wanted even if she hadn’t been willing to say it with his father in earshot. Over the last few years that didn’t seem to have changed. 

She’d brought him the first letter to arrive, and then she’d continued bringing them. Quietly slipping them his way when his father wasn’t looking without acknowledging it. It was the only reason he’d stayed as long as he had. Tempted as he was to simply walk away with clothes on his back. 

Well, not the only reason. The letters were the second. .

Each one a new reason to stay when leaving would mean losing his only point of contact with the slightly younger man. Besides, he had yet to find a job that would take him. He didn’t intend to end up on the streets. 

Although that would probably be the final nail in the coffin for his father. He’d already made it perfectly clear that he was a disgrace if he chose to simply leave his father might actually announce that he’d died. 

The funeral’d probably be a good one too. Empty coffin and all. 

His mother’s appearance at his side wasn’t a terrible change in scenery. The loud voices of his sisters guests still grated on his nerves as she laid a hand on his shoulder. “Elis. Letter for you.” 

All of Joe’s letter always began with the same line.  _ Today it’s Friday.  _ And this one was no different, pulling a grin to his face even as he scrambled to his room. Wouldn’t do to be caught with a letter after all. 

His father rarely liked his answers to questions. And he had no intention of lying about this now. It wouldn’t matter anyway. 

An hour later and he was packing. The invitation apparently from Joe's mother wasn't one he would ever have passed up. Especially when it gave him both a reason to leave and a chance to see Joe. His pack quickly being filled with as much as he could carry on his own while trying to decide on the easiest route out of town. Or more accurately the one least likely to have his father or any of his father’s friends along it. 

His mother at his door wasn’t all that surprising. The knowing look in her eyes and the small bag she offered was. A soft smile as she slipped away and he grabbed his pack. Pausing just long enough to check that the letters were secure in it as well before leaving. 

Making it to the train was easy enough, making it on the train just as easy even if he had to wait until his father’s friend was off duty to get his ticket. And soon enough he was on his way. The train pulling away from the station as he breathed a quiet sigh of relief and smirked slightly.

It’d take a few days. That was a few days for him to decide exactly how he’d explain all this to Joe and another day or two to decide exactly what he’d say when he finally got there. 

He’d reflect later that what he came up with was woefully inadequate. The door swinging open to Joe’s face (a good thing, he’d been afraid it would be his mother. Or worse his brother) and all that had come from his mouth was the first line of all of his letters. 

“Blake, today’s Friday isn’t it?” The other man lunging to pull him into a hug before he’d managed anything else and swinging around a moment later to introduce his mother as he pulled him into the house. 

Elis stumbling in after him as he followed the conversation. Attempting a polite smile as she looked at him. “Nice to meet you Mrs. Blake.”

A minute later and she slipped from the room. Leaving him and Joe sitting alone in it as he turned and pulled the other to him before she had the chance to find whoever she’d gone to find. 

Joe laughing quietly as he returned the hug. Pulling Elis half onto his lap as he pressed their foreheads together for half a second before pulling back. 

“You know El you’ll have to tell me how everything's actually been going. You think I can’t read between the line’s in those letters or something?”

Huffing a quiet laugh of his own he flopped onto the other for a moment as he smirked at him. 

“Now why would that be important? I’ve got you now. That’s what's important yeah.”

“Shut up El.” A blush spreading across Joe’s face as he laughed again. The other leaning forward to bury his face in Elis’s hair for a moment. And a whisper against the top of his head. “Missed you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of this is my own headcanons that came to me today while I was writing it. So it may be a bit messy in some spots, a few things are ideas that were flown in the 2nd Devons discord and I love all of yall! You guys give me so much inspiration I swear. 
> 
> Honestly don't remember if I came up with the name Elis or the 2nd Devons  
> (The Today it's Friday line is all Alice and I love her with my whole heart)
> 
> TW I tagged period typical homophobia because it is alluded too but I don't believe it's anything explicit!


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